17 English club scouts flock to watch young Celtic players

Scouts from no fewer than 17 English clubs were at Parkhead last night to watch Celtic’s home defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

They were there to cast an eye over Celtic’s 20 year-old left-back Kieran Tierney, and 21-year old forward Moussa Dembele who have both been attracting a lot of attention south of the border. Tierney has just penned a new 6-year contract with the Scottish Champions, but that has done nothing to deter the pack of admirers, including Tottenham who already scouted the player against Bayern in Munich two weeks ago.

Also watching last night were representatives from Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal, as well as a host of other English clubs.

Dembele only transferred to Celtic from Fulham a little over a year ago for a fee of £500,000, but now it is said that the Glasgow club now value the pair at a combined £50 million.

Such a fee is unlikely to deter some of their wealthy pursuers, and with Celtic out of the Champions League again now, the right offer might prise one, or both of them, away.

Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.